by Michael Duca

OAKLAND–If anyone is thinking just because former A’s pitcher Dallas Braden admitted he doctored baseballs during his career and that his Mother’s Day perfect game in 2010 was tainted I say to anyone with that thinking “who cares” really who cares what people think. What people think has very little bearing on reality.

If people would think, the pitcher uses a rosin bag with his own sweat, guess what that makes? It makes pine tar, pine tar is just dried up ground pine tar. I couldn’t never understand why there was an issue about getting a grip on the baseball. It’s not like it makes the baseball do something unusual, it’s not like it’s saliva, mucus, KY Jelly, Vaseline or 1000 other things that pitchers use.

Former A’s pitcher Dave Stewart used to put Dawn soap washing liquid in the crotch of his pants and used that to make the ball slippery and no umpire was ever going to come out and check Stewart there for a foreign substance. He would use the slippery stuff on his fingers and it would make the ball dart more it makes the ball late. The way the baseball is thrown would be for what your aiming at which is a good thing for most hitters and he would not have to worry about where the ball is going.

A Barry Zito return back to Oakland is more than likely to be in September during call ups: Unlike the San Francisco Giants who honor their retired and ex players the A’s aren’t as sentimental and most likely will give Zito a send off in September after minor league call ups. The A’s will find a way in September to bring him up so he could get a nice send off from the A’s.

Zito is not having the numbers in Triple A Nashville to be brought up, he won’t be able to be called to start or relieve and his time in the show is about over. The A’s very unlikely will call up Zito before September. The A’s have one lefthander in the bullpen and that’s Fernando Abad. The theory that Zito would be called as a lefty specialist is unlikely his numbers will have to vastly improve to be brought up before September. Among other things being Zito he has to learn how to warm up, Zito’s warm up protocol has been 25 minutes long.

My memories of Barry Zito are more with the San Francisco Giants than with the Oakland A’s and he was far more successful with the A’s prior to coming to the Giants. I was more involved covering the Giants and Zito during his years there. The one memory that stands out is during the 2010 NLCS where he was benched because he had such a rough year. Zito was class he was the first guy out on the field during warm ups and batting practice and was the last guy off the field. He was there helping guys out and giving tips. Barry was class.

Michael Duca does Giants and A’s commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to the podcast below